I can attest to that. TV pitchman Jared supposedly became slim eating at Subway, but after wolfing their “$5 foot-long” specials every day, I gained 10 pounds.

The second hunger grows from having a city center that is becoming deserted.

That speaks to my needs too. Those of us who build companies or generate business want a nice place downtown to take employees, clients and prospects for a traditional home-cooked meal.

So here’s what Irene did:

She woke up one morning and realized that she was miserable. Though she had a successful career as a prosecutor of domestic violence cases, she found the work soul-crushing. So she quit.

“I wanted to be happy,” she said. “I realized, making people happy makes me happy. I wanted to do what I loved.”

She loved to cook. She loved cultural history and women’s issues. And she loved to be out and about in Baltimore.

It all came together last fall. She got the opportunity to operate one of the first food trucks in the city. Her company, Souper Freaks, opened as a mobile gourmet restaurant that feeds the need for healthy food on the run.

Then she heard that the Woman’s Industrial Kitchen, shuttered for a decade, was looking for a new owner. Irene decided to take what she was learning from the food truck and apply it to one of the city’s oldest dining institutions. She reopened the Kitchen, as she calls it, in December.

The Kitchen is the only restaurant in America dedicated to preserving women’s history, and in particular, Maryland women’s history.

The restaurant dates back 130 years. Gourmet food trucks are new in the city. Thanks to Irene’s innovative spirit, her businesses connect the past and future. We’re going to need that kind of thinking to keep our traditions cooking.